Ron Sutherland: Keith Irving - Cycling Without Age

On Thursday 14^th Keith Irving of Cycling Without Age's Hawick Chapter gave a presentation to the Club. He first went through the history of CWA from its inception in Denmark to now, throughout the globe. The Hawick group follows Peebles as the second one to be set up in the Borders with others being planned in a couple of other towns. Then he gave thanks for the support of Hawick Rotary Club and the other groups that have given help to the CWA Chapter in Hawick.

He described the type of trishaw that is in Hawick, highlighting the choice of certain features that will hopefully reduce the need for maintenance, such as the Sturmey-Archer style gears that many of the audience were familiar with in their younger days. The machine is electric assisted so the Pilots, as they are known, do not have to expend a great deal of energy to pedal it, as the electric power kicks in as soon as the pedals are pushed. It is named Bette after Bette McLaren, and the fundraising has already started for the next machine.

The group has already carried a number of passengers in their free service, such as a couple of veterans in the Remembrance Parade and some residents of Deanfield for the launch day. The First Minister was also lucky enough to get a ride in it when she visited Hawick this week.

Keith illustrated his talk with lots of statistics and photos of trishaws around the world from Falkirk to Sydney. His talk ended with a host of questions and expressions of interest in the use of the trishaw showing how much the company had enjoyed his talk. A vote of thanks was given by President Linden Warburton.